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Stocks could run out in four weeks if a substitute for this product is not found
A part of the Spanish agri-food industry will be paralyzed if in four weeks it does not find a substitute for the sunflower oilused for the preparation of a multitude of products, from pastries and preserves to sauces and fried foods, and whose reserves will not last more than a month.
The war in Ukraine has stopped the activity in the refineries of that country, from which Spain receives 62% of the sunflower oil it uses, ships do not circulate through the Bosphorus Strait and only the oil that was in stock is left.
The shortage “is imminent”, he told Efe Ruben MorenoCEO of Produlce, an association that represents companies in the sweets, biscuits and pastry sector and to which they belong bimbo, Gullon or Nestleamong many.
“We already have the ‘stocks’ to the limit and within a couple of weeks the earliest companies will have run out of sunflower oil and in a maximum period of four weeks all the companies”, Moreno has abounded.
Representatives of the Spanish Association of Canned Vegetable Manufacturers (Agrucón) have spoken in the same vein, as has the general secretary of the National Association of Canned Fish Manufacturers (Anfaco-Cecopesca), John Vieiteswho has stated that the shortage is a matter of three weeks or a month.
“Deep Concern”
The disappearance of sunflower oil bottles in supermarkets, the limitation of their sale and their price riseas some organizations have denounced, have been the first evidence of the implications that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has for this product and for the consumer.
But soon the alarm has also sounded about its repercussion in the industry, which needs this input wholesale, for the frying in restaurants and in ‘snack’ companies, for the pastry makingand for the transformation and canning of food and sauces, among others.
According to a study by the olive consultant Juan Villar to which Efe has had access, per year they are consumed in Spain 193,200 tons of sunflower oil inside the home, while for industrial, hotel and restaurant use they are used 186,800 tons.
“We are deeply concerned,” Vieites told Efe, detailing that companies in the sector employ 98,000 tons of vegetable oils each year, 44% is olive oil and the rest is sunflower oil.
Looking for more oil
Now, both they and the rest of the industrial sectors are searching against the clock for new origins for sunflower oil, such as Argentina, Brazil or South Africawhile trying to develop new formulations for their recipes with other types of oil.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAPA) has highlighted that Spain has the world’s largest production of olive oil and that this can mitigate the situation of shortage of sunflower oil, but for the industries it is not equivalent.
“Unfortunately, it is not useful for us (olive oil), it does not have the ideal characteristics to be a substitute for sunflower, starting with the flavor, which is much stronger and is not neutral,” Moreno pointed out.
The Produlce companies are looking at other oils that are in the minority in Spain, such as coconut, rape or palmand its research and development departments work to develop new recipes with these oils in order to achieve a product as similar as possible to the original.
If they meet this challenge, companies then have to change product labeling to reflect the new recipe and ingredient used, for which Moreno has said a new “bottleneck” because there will be no designers, no printers, or enough plastic material to do something like this in such a short time.
Risk of shortage of olive oil?
For the Anfaco companies, which already have part of their production based on olive oil, resorting to this fat does not solve the problem either, among other things, Vieites has indicated, because “little is already being supplied and the price is also rising”. According to the consultant Vilar, 190,000 tons of olive oil go to the agri-food industry every year in Spain and 347,000 tons are intended for home consumption.
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This analyst has warned that if the situation in Ukraine continues, and adds to a poor production forecast of olive oil for this campaign, this product could also suffer from shortages. However, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, louis planeshas ensured that the ‘stock’ of olive oil allows peace of mind and security that it will not be missing.
Vieites, however, has indicated that they have asked the authorities to review the regulations relating to tariffs to import of certain countries, as well as those of pesticides and phytosanitaryso that they can buy sunflower oil from origins that they cannot get now because they do not meet the required requirements.